Hopkins County / Samuel Hopkins
Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
County Named, 1806. For Samuel Hopkins, 1753-1819. On Washington's staff and in many campaigns, War of the Revolution. Came to Ky., 1797, as Transylvania Company agent. In 1799, organized and named judge of first court held in original Henderson County, which included this area. In Ky. House, 1800-06; Senate, 1809-13. Commander in Chief, Western Frontier, 1812; U.S. Congress, 1813-1815.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Hopkins County, created in 1806, honors Samuel Hopkins, a Virginia officer who served on Washington's staff through the Revolution before coming west in 1797 as an agent of the Transylvania Company. He organized and led the first court in the sprawling original Henderson County, sat in both houses of Kentucky's legislature, and commanded American forces on the Western frontier during the War of 1812. He capped his career with two terms in Congress.
Why it matters
Hopkins embodied the Revolutionary generation that pushed westward and built the institutions—courts, legislatures, militias—of the early frontier states.
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Related people
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